Your Vancouver Roommate Guide

Looking for a roommate in Vancouver?

Let's try to help you out

What are the best sites to help you find a Vancouver roommate? We've put together what we consider the best roommate sites to help you fine that great roomie.

Roomster

Roomster is all about finding a roommate. While part of the site also lets you find full apartments, roommates is the focus of the site. Vancouverites can create a profile for free indicating they are seeking a place to live, or that they have an apartment with a room for rent.

Roomster allows members to connect their profiles to their social media accounts, allowing you to learn a bit more about the person by viewing their social shares and social network community. While this doesn't entirely mean that scams and fakes won't exist, we would argue it provides a bit more reassurance, as well as allowing you to learn more about the person behind the ad.

Filters include location, rental amount, age, gender, zodiac sign, and willingness to live with pets. For a decent idea on compatibility, the profiles include information such as age, smoking, wake up/bed time, cleanliness, food preferences, and willingness for guests/parties/students.

While creating a profile is free (and can only be done with a Facebook account - it seems), you need a paid membership to communicate. We'll argue to pay a few bucks for much better quality than the likes of Craigslist or Kijiji is worth it. When comparing what you'll be paying for rent in Vancouver (not cheap!), a few dollars to help you with the task of finding a great roommate seems a no-brainer. They do auto renew membership plans (at longer time spans), so be sure to cancel if you no longer plan to use it.

EasyRoommmate

EasyRoommate does one thing only: matches roommates up. Post your room for rent, or that you are looking for a room. Posting is free, however responding to ads isn't always. If the ad poster has paid for a premium membership, their ad can be responded to for free. If the poster has not purchased a premium membership, only those with a premium membership can respond to the ad within the first 7 days of it being posted (free for all after 7 days). If you're looking for a room, consider the premium membership to be getting first-dibs on contacting new room ads.

Filtering includes location (city/neighbourhood), rental rate, age range, gender, and occupation-status (professional/student). They state that new accounts are moderated, thus reducing the amount of scam profiles. There are a decent amount of Vancouver roommate-wanted ads on EasyRoommate, so it's worth creating your free account to check them out.

Craigslist

Ahh, Craigslist. One of the longest running online classified sites - still in its low-end format, although they've slowly added a few features, including browsing in map view which is super helpful. Filters include price, square footage, pet-friendliness, furnished, laundry and parking. While you have to be careful of fake/scam ads, due to its popularity, Craigslist should likely be on your list of roommate sites to try. Posting and responding to ads is free.

VancouverSuperAds.com

VancouverSuperAds.com is full classified site that is free to post and respond. Listed under 'Roommates Wanted' or 'Rooms for Rent' (which seems to be furnished rooms) under 'Real Estate for Rent,' you can filter by keywords and rental rate. There are a decent amount of listings here, so worth a check. Posting and responding to ads is free.

PadMapper

PadMapper allows Vancouverites to search for a place to live with an easy to use map interface. Leave only 'Rooms' checked to find those who have a room for rent in their place. Additional search filters include rental amount, age of listing, keywords, pet-friendliness, and Walk Score. PadMapper combines its own roommate listings, with that of some other sites, including Airbnb. Responding to ads is free.

Kijiji

Kijiji is the old staple that allows you to search and buy for anything and everything in Vancouver. It's a bit of a mess and heavy on the advertising, but there are a plethora of roommate ads here. Worth a shot if you've exhausted the sites listed above. Filters include location, rental rate, furnished and pet-friendliness. Posting and responding to ads is free, but be warned that Kijiji (like Craigslist) is a hot bed for scams.

Roomlala

Roomlala is a bit different from your typical roommate or apartment site, but there are definitely shared accommodation rentals listed for Vancouver. Focus on the 'Spare Rooms' and 'Flatshares' sections, unless you're looking for a short term rental.

Roomlala operates on an interesting model in that, if the person posting the ad hasn't paid a membership fee then the person inquiring must in order for their message to be read (and vice versa: if the person posting the room for rent had paid a membership then the potential renters message can be read at no cost to the potential renter). Basically, one side of the conversation has to pay. That said, it's worth checking the listings as one could argue the quality of the listings should be higher than that of a Craigslist or Kijiji. Filtering is fairly limited, however: Rental rate, move in/out date, etc. You won't find as many listings compared to most of the other sites listed here, but it's worth a quick search.

Backpage

Backpage is similar to Craigslist, but with a lot less listings. Search options are similar as well: keywords, rent amounts, and pet-friendliness. It's worth a quick look. Posting and responding to ads is free

Sublet.com

Sublet.com has a fairly old-school interface, but if you've exhausted most other roommate sites, it's worth checking out. Select 'Room for Rent' to filter for only roommate ads. Other search filters include gender, lease term, furnished/unfurnished, parking, laundry, and air conditioning. A map interface is available, to easily view listings by location. This roommate site is a bit annoying in that if the ad-poster hasn't paid for a membership then the ad responder must pay in order to send a message. If you want to use this for free, only respond to those ads that state 'Contact... Free'. Also, some ads are listed in US dollars.